It is a new year here at Harvard College, and we, the editors of Manifesta Magazine, look forward to making this year better both on-campus and in the world at large for all of our readers.

Of course, there is much to improve. In the past seven months, we have faced several struggles in the fight for equality. Bathroom protections for transgender students have been rescinded. The Justice Department filed an amicus brief stating the Civil Rights Act of 1964 should not apply to LGBTQ+ people. The categories of ‘gender identity’ and ‘sexual orientation’ were removed from the 2020 census. And as of last month, transgender individuals can no longer join the military.

However, all is not lost. Elections occur every year. While it is an off-year in the national election season, local elections are also very important, if not more important, than national elections, because local and state governments control the parts of government that we see every day.

Manifesta is not a political publication. However, we fight for equality of gender, sexuality, and race, and that, unfortunately, is a political issue as well as a social one. For our part, we will work to showcase articles about every aspect of equality, not just white feminism or Afro-centric racism. We will work to include more articles on transgender individuals, the struggles of Asian and indigenous people as well as blacks and Latinos, and other people who are being marginalized even within already marginalized groups. We will work to diversify our authorship, thereby including more perspectives. We will work to make this a truly inclusive and intersectional magazine.

We cannot do this alone. We ask your help, readers, to tell us who we are leaving out. Our editorial board, by no means, covers every part of the identity spectrum. If you do not see yourself represented within our articles, speak up so that we may hear you. Message us via Facebook, tweet us, or simply send us an email. It does not matter what method you choose, only that your voice is heard.

Here at Manifesta Magazine, we like to believe that if we can think long enough about the surfaces as well as the depths, we can change things: make new images, revamp old ones, destabilize what it means to act male or straight or American or immigrant or queer. Most of all, we hope that by taking a step back to think critically about our own performance, we can make changes way down deep.

Stay strong and fight the patriarchy,

EICs

P.S. If all this sounds like something you want to fight with us, we will be in the Quad from 4-7 at the activities fair TODAY.